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Tax Sasol or nationalise it - SACP

The SA Communist Party would like to see Sasol [JSE:SOL] nationalised, but if this could not be achieved immediately the petro-chemical giant should then be subjected to a windfall tax on extra profits.

SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin said this was one of the many draft resolutions that emerged from the party's four-day long congress that wrapped up on Sunday at the University of Zululand near Empangeni on.

Speaking at a press briefing following the end of the 13th National Congress, Cronin said that while the party's aim was for the total nationalisation of Sasol, there was "no reason why we should not propose a windfall tax”.

He said the SACP believed Sasol was raking in huge profits. It cost the company $40 (about R331) to produce the equivalent of a barrel and it was being paid at the going world market price for oil, which was close to $100 (about R826) a barrel.

Cronin said a resolution to call for the re-nationalisation of AcelorMittal SA [JSE:ACL] (formerly Iscor) was based on the fact that the SACP believed it was being stripped by its international parent company.

He said another draft resolution called for the transformation of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).

Cronin said the colour composition of the SANDF was not at the centre of the call for transformation, but rather they way it was run and operated.

Media ownership was also an issue that was hotly debated by delegates, according to Cronin.

The role of the national broadcaster in particular received much attention with a draft resolution calling for 60 percent of the broadcaster's budget to come from public funding.

Cronin said there was also a move against foreign ownership of media in the country and that there should be greater diversity.

General secretary Blade Nzimande's failure to arrive at an SACP fundraising gala dinner was raised at the press conference - with Nzimande saying it was not a snub to deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, who spoke at the event on Saturday night.

"I was simply exhausted. There was nothing else.”

During his closing address to the congress, Nzimande said others were laying claim to Nelson Mandela's legacy and using it against the SA Communist Party and its allies.

"Our revolution is not for sale.”

Without making a direct reference to the Democratic Alliance, but referring to "those in the Western Cape”, he warned that the former president's legacy was being used against the party to discredit it.

In his speech the long-serving party member again repeated calls for "tender-trepeneurs” to be flushed out of the party.

He also called on municipalities to stop outsourcing work, but instead to increase their own capacity and employ more people.

Referring to the African National Congress' recent policy conference, Nzimande said he welcomed the resolutions from that conference.

The ANC had accepted that "it can no longer be business as usual”.

The SACP was more united than ever and a clear indication of this fact was that the party's leadership had been elected by consensus, Nzimande said.

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